{"id":5085,"date":"2026-05-07T11:49:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T11:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/07\/under-pressure-bottom-of-michigan-lineup-ignites\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T11:49:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T11:49:23","slug":"under-pressure-bottom-of-michigan-lineup-ignites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/07\/under-pressure-bottom-of-michigan-lineup-ignites\/","title":{"rendered":"Under pressure, bottom of Michigan lineup ignites"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>By shutting out Ohio State 9-0, the Michigan softball team didn\u2019t just advance to the Big Ten Quarterfinals \u2014 it also reignited an offense that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/softball\/michigan-overcomes-michigan-state-powerful-pitching-with-some-of-its-own-3-1\/\">recently<\/a> hasn\u2019t been on its best game. And the Wolverines offensive dominance was largely owed to the bottom of the lineup and its ability to under pressure.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the second half of your lineup is turning the lineup around and they\u2019re getting hits, and\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>they\u2019re being productive, it\u2019s going to be a good day for the Wolverines,\u201d Michigan coach Bonnie Tholl said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And on Wednesday, it was a good day for the Wolverines. Facing a team like the Buckeyes who have demonstrated incredible offensive power on the season, notably tallying 116 homers, Michigan was able to do what Ohio State could not \u2014 score.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cI asked them to be bold from the moment they stepped on the bus today,\u201d Tholl said. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna need that boldness when we\u2019re stepping into the box and making plays defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Starting with redshirt junior catcher Lilly Vallimont batting in the five hole, the second half of the Wolverines\u2019 lineup tallied nine of the 12 total hits made throughout the game. These hits propelled Michigan to a win that silenced a potent Buckeyes offense even without the help of its most prolific hitter: sophomore right fielder Lauren Putz, who was previously batting .448 on the season and who is just two homers shy of tying the personal home run record set by former infielder Sierra Romero in 2013. However, against Ohio State on Wednesday she faced an unusual slump, unable to make contact with the ball during any of her at bats. She reached base only once due to one of the Buckeyes\u2019 routine fielding errors.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Luckily for the Wolverines, Putz didn\u2019t need to be on her game for them to excel. Though it took an inning for the bottom of the lineup to warm up, senior third baseman Maddie Erickson instigated the top of the second with a powerful double that reached the center field wall. A long-ball single by senior second baseman Janelle Ilacqua plated Erickson at third, poised to score. But the top of the order wasn\u2019t able to capitalize off the setup on the field and the inning ended without any more movement, stranding two runners on base.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But again, the second half of the lineup stepped up in the top of the third. Redshirt junior Lilly Vallimont stepped up to plate with one out on the board and slammed her 10th home run of the season far over the top of the center field wall and the net that doubled its height. Following Vallimont\u2019s solo homer, a double from freshman shortstop Kiley Carr that escaped the left fielder\u2019s mitt and a walk drawn by Erickson set the game board up just right for Ilacqua to send a single into an empty space, bringing Carr home. Ilacqua would tally another hit in the top of the fourth that brought another runner across the plate, going 3-for-3 from the nine spot in the batting order.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really important to just go ahead and have your best at bat,\u201d Ilacqua said. \u201cAnd not really let, \u2018Oh, there\u2019s a runner on third base,\u2019 or, \u2018I need to score an RBI,\u2019 and those kinds of thoughts seep into your mind. Just go up there and try to hit the ball hard. And then it\u2019s also knowing and having faith in our pitching staff and our offense, and if I don\u2019t get it done, next inning it\u2019ll get done. It really takes off a lot of the pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Without its usual offensive instigator at the helm, the bottom of Michigan\u2019s lineup didn\u2019t clam up. On the stage when it was needed most, the Wolverines spread the production throughout their lineup and outhit Ohio State.<\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By shutting out Ohio State 9-0, the Michigan softball team didn\u2019t just advance to the Big Ten Quarterfinals \u2014 it also reignited an offense that recently hasn\u2019t been on its best game. And the Wolverines offensive dominance was largely owed to the bottom of the lineup and its ability to under pressure.\u00a0 \u201cWhen the second [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[4648,4649,336,222,1832],"class_list":{"0":"post-5085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-bottom","9":"tag-ignites","10":"tag-lineup","11":"tag-michigan","12":"tag-pressure"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5087,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5085\/revisions\/5087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}